Snapper
by Khalhambra
Summary: Every human has their very own Saurian Life Mate. Except for Frank Scott. But when he finally finds one, nobody, including he himself, is very pleased about it.
1. Snapper, Act 1: Scene 1

Based on the books by James Gurney and on the Mini series and TV-series Copyright Halmark Entertainment and Bridge Entertainment Group BV

Since I am using characters that were not in the mini-series, mine will look like the ones in the tv-series. So David is the dark curly one and Karl the blue-eyed blonde.

Every human has their very own Saurian Life Mate. Except for Frank Scott. But when he finally finds one, nobody, including he himself, is very pleased about it.

Dinotopia: the second season

By Owl-Who-Ate-Too-Many-Mice

Part one

Snapper: Act 1, Scene 1

The trading post somewhere along the road to Waterfall City lay neglected no longer. It was a halfway point, not too far from anywhere, and easy to reach for those who wanted to meet up with a friend, drink a good glass before moving on or trading oranges from one place for apples from another. Once it had been a rag-tag building with no discerning qualities, a bit of a dump, really. Maintained by one who's heart had no longer been in it. But when it had changed hands, it had changed colour. The place and the surrounding hamlet looked like something straight out of a picture book, thick old stone walls, timber framed upper levels, huge chimneys sticking out in odd ends from under the slate roofs. The Sun-stone in it's small tower on top, glittering it's magical light protectively over the small community.

Nowadays one could find things here propriety might frown upon. Although in these lands Propriety either shook her head smiling in a motherly fashion and looked the other way, or mildly asked the miscreant to move over and let her join in. Such were the ways of the Dinotopians. Accept, encompass and enjoy. Look mildly upon those whom you do not understand and try to learn something. Try to help. And if all kindness fails, ignore. Do not punish what you not agree with but overlook it, and encourage that which the ancestors saw as good. Since people like to be liked, they will eventually behave in a fashion that is likable.

This gave one family of newcomers the freedom to make the place their home. To try and build something. To welcome all. And if 'all' hadn't included the 'Outsiders', this thought would have been –very- Dinotopian.

The Outsiders were those people, who did not enjoy the constraints of the society they had grown up in. Out of fear or a sense of superiority, they thought they were a better kind of creature than the dinosaurs whom had welcomed their marooned ancestors many generations ago. Forming a clan of their own, where only the rules of the strongest counted, they were the counterbalance where the dregs of society gathered.

Or so the good burgers of the isle taught their children. Conveniently forgetting that the existence of the Outsiders in their paradise was at least a token that not all was well or simple. And overlooking the fact the reasons for the Outsiders to choose a different life might be diverse.

Outsiders dressed in dark and earthy tones that would camouflage them during the hunt. Only their uncrowned Queen, Torres LeSage, dared to wear red outside in the woods. Blood red for a hot-blooded lady with, like all Outsiders, an immense dislike of the Saurians that went as far as hunting even the Tyrannosaurs for sport. Or dinner. In their way, they could be brave for one mistake during those hunts and they would –become- dinner.

A group of about seven of these outsiders had gathered inside the bar, drinking, laughing, making fun of the locals and generally having a good time. They were a dark spot in the corner, whereas the other patrons dressed in bright colours, tailored to the tastes and styles of the times their ancestors had landed in Dinotopia, or simply in a way they found practical. That was of course as far as the human clientele went. The Saurians came in all the seizes that could come through the old saloon style swing doors, scales glittering in a rainbow of colours, claws tapping the wooden floorboards in homely pitter-patter.

Old stone walls decorated the bar, brightened with something of a 'shipwreck motif' consisting of a couple of brightly painted figureheads next to the entrance and ships lanterns dangling from the ceiling. The walls were lined with shelves filled with mugs and glasses in all kinds of styles. Behind the bar a large variety of jugs and boxes could be found, containing a wide variety of leaves and herbs for tea's, the rot-gut people here believed was worthy of the name 'whiskey' and many, many kinds of fruit juice. Above it hung an old ships bell, waiting for someone to grab the rope and stand a round.

Today the bar also held one of the two sons of the man who owned the place, a young blonde who went by the name of Karl Scott, and who was currently busying himself with scrubbing a very clean glass even cleaner, just so he would not die of sheer boredom.

Even the arrival of the Outsider's second in command, a tall man with a long face and a calm, calculated demeanour, seemed utterly mundane today. The man went by the name of Quint. He could make himself almost invisible and looked over if he so desired, especially when he was guarding the back of LeSage. He carried a jute bag over his shoulder and seemed in rather good spirits, which usually meant trouble.

Quint threw the bag down on the table none too gently, and it yelped and growled a bit. He laughed, harsh and a forced, while plunking down besides his mates, waving at Karl. Quint swept his long black hair back over his shoulder, adjusted his headband and gave the curly redhead beside him a one armed embrace. He said something and the whole table of Outsiders roared. With his long coat, the knives at his belt and his overall ruddiness, he looked like the ultimate 'cool' to Karl.

Not that the young man aspired to –be- anything even remotely –like- any of the Outsiders, lets face it, who really wanted to be a hygienically challenged murdering bastard with serious dental problems? But the Outsiders possessed a freedom and a lust for life not many Dinotopians even realised was possible. At least they were not stuck behind a bar polishing glasses and serving herbal tea!

Karl was barely twenty years old and he certainly would not have chosen to celebrate that special birthday in his fathers 'saloon'. On his fathers yacht, perhaps. Or his fathers penthouse back home in New York. But those places he most likely would never see again. Dad's business partners probably would have sold both by now.

In appearance he had taken more after his mother than his father. He had inherited her fair hair, blue eyes, round cheeks and heavy set eyebrows. But in character he did favour his dad. Reckless, charming, and somewhat manipulative at times.

Karl threw down the cleaning rag an sauntered towards the cheering, laughing band of Merry Men.

"So gentlemen? What will it be? A Cytrus surprise? Dandelion tea with –just- a hint of lemon?"

Quint looked up at him and drawled "How about something that goes with this?" holding up and slightly shaking a small silver flask.

"Just some glasses then. Right."

Quint chuckled and gave him a nod.

"No ice, anybody?"

But the Outsiders ignored Karl and congratulated Quint again, pounding his back, pointing at and prodding the lumpy bag he had brought them.

Karl's father, Frank Scott, had been desperate to get of the island and back to his –life-, when chance had brought him in contact with Giorgio, an ex-diving instructor cum smuggler who had ended up on Dinotopia twenty-two years previous. Both being needed elsewhere and knowing what Frank was going through, made him offer Frank the trading post. Not to mention that Frank and Karl had saved him and his wife from a hungry Tyrannosaurus Rex!

In accepting Giorgio's gift, Frank had been able to gain a badly needed challenge, a living, a house for himself and Karl and a place to come back to for his other son, David, who's duties made him dwell in Canyon City most of the time.

David, adapting much quicker to the Dinotopian way than his half-brother and father, had become a Skybax Rider, one of the flying guardians who rode Pterosaurs, huge bony flying dinosaurs with a wingspan of about thirty feet and enormous beaks. They connected with their riders on an almost spiritual level David could not even explain to himself. But he did know that the Pterosaurs allowed the humans to fly with them only, man would never be able to master them. Why the Pterosaurs where like this? Perhaps they picked up on the love for the flight of their riders, but more likely they felt just as responsible for the lands they surveyed and protected.

David and Karl had been born from different mothers with only a few months in between. David had always been the more introvert one, but here on Dinotopia he had quickly come into his own, a Skybax officer on the rise. Although for a good cause he could be just as manipulative as his brother, he'd rather fought fair if given a chance. David favoured the dark colouring of his father's, but his mother had been a finer boned creature with eyes the pale blue colour of the sky at dawn. David had inherited those and his pointed face and slim figure set him apart from the others.

David and Karl had not really known each other very well and there had been a strong undercurrent of sibling rivalry in their relation ship. First an foremost for the approval of their father, and later on for the favour of the fair Marian, the daughter of Matriarch Rosemary of the Earth Farm and Mayor Waldo of Waterfall City. But David had done some growing up lately, growing more secure within himself and in his duties every time he challenged the currents in the wind. Leaving his brother behind, although neither had realised this yet.

David had bonded with his 'bird' Freefall, an albino Pterosaur, who until he and David became Life Mates had been an outcast among his own. Just as David's initial fear of heights had set him apart from all other in the Skybax core. But they completed each other, found courage within the other and were perhaps more like brothers than David and Karl could ever be.

Karl had been told to adopt and bond with the tiny Chasmosaurus he had seen born and had named Twenty-six, a responsibility he had not asked for and only grudgingly learned to accept. The size of a small dog now, Twenty-six would dwarf Karl when grown. She had a larch neck frill that made her look like a miniature Elizabethan lady-in–waiting, albeit a plump one, and the two horns above her brow and the third on the bridge of her nose were quickly growing, like the first teeth of a human child. What they would benefit from each other the future still held secret for them, although Twenty-six –was- picking up an at times rather ironic sense of humour.

But perhaps that had more to do with her adoptive 'grandfather', who even in the direst of circumstances seemed to have some wise-crack up his sleeve, had a rather short fuse, especially if something or someone threatened the small circle of his family, and busied himself with getting the best deals in town to keep the trading post running. Which bored him almost out off his scull at times, for the Dinotopians had no competitive bone in their collective body, priced anything the same anywhere and merrily congratulated him on finding a better supplier if he tried to get a better price by threatening to take his business elsewhere. Frank Scott had been a successful businessman in all kinds of ventures and had thrived on challenges back in what he stubbornly kept calling the 'real world'. Neither of his boys had inherited his green eyes or his business instinct, even if Karl was something of an opportunist.

His boys were all he had, perhaps all he ever truly had needed and Frank started to realise, although he would never amid it, that he had missed out on their lives terribly. And just as this understanding crept up to him, the boys were turning into men and he had to let them go. After the plane crash that had landed them in Dinotopian waters, Frank had thought them dead for moths, nearly going mad in the dark cave system he had found himself in instead of reaching the shore. Endless months, while starvation wrecked his body and the lonely darkness closed in on his mind. He still found himself plagued with nightmares, but only Karl, living under the same roof and sleeping in the room next to his, knew of the more vocal ones.

"No ice," Karl repeated to him self.

Behind him, the sudden yelp of one of the outsiders made him swiftly turn on the heel. He heard cloth tearing, all of the Outsiders cursing and swearing and jumping up from their seats. Karl saw one of the men clutching a hand to his chest, bleeding badly, and the rest of them dashing for the floor and trying to catch –something- that raced under one table to another, back again, was jumped at by the Outsiders, and, judging from the yelping and cussing, had apparently bit another one.

Glasses and mugs went flying, other guests where roughly pushed aside and everyone was screaming. Whatever 'it' was disappeared into the kitchen, with the huddle of men at its heels.

Karl stood dumbfounded, until he heard Lorenzo, the kook, give a shout. Coming to his senses he followed the chaos, but never made it as far as the kitchen.

A small creature slipped between his legs and made him stumble. The creature made a b-line for their private rooms at the side where his father was doing the accounts. It was apparently shying away from the harsh light of the tropical midday sun outside.

Flat on the floor, Karl's mind was racing. Bag- moving- Quint laughing- probably a long time in the dark bag-

"Ouch!" Karl cried out, while he was trying to get up but that was not really working while three of the Outsiders were trying to leave the kitchen as one and stumbling over him and on top of him again.

Quint himself however, pushed, kicked and bullied the lot of them aside, made the wrong conclusion and ran out of the swing-doors, looked around and shouted his disappointment.

"What the devil is going on here!" another voice bellowed over the melee.

Finding his feet, Karl looked up at his father, who had some blood splattered over his jacket, was sucking a small wound on is right hand and held in his other, as far away from his person as possible, a dangling, snapping and screeching mini dino in a firm grip by the tail.

The claws on the hind legs of the creature, small though it was, could still do his father some serious damage. Quickly Karl took of his jacket and wrapped the struggling little creature in it, so his father could let go of the tail.

"Are you alright dad?"

"Yeah. I'm fine!" Frank answered, biting of his words and pale with anger.

"But, the blood- it's all over you."

Frank looked down at his ruined shirt and shook his head.

"Not mine, son." He gave a nod at the struggling bundle in Karl's arms. "His."

Quint in the mean time, had returned upon hearing Frank storm out his office, and smiled broadly with a calculating look in the eyes.

"Yes, well, it was wounded a bit when I caught it. Should not have kept it in a cloth bag of course. You can give it back to me now, I will repay you for the shirt- and the jacket." He made a wave at his friends behind him, who looked at each other sheepishly for a moment and then quickly started to clean up the mess of fallen upturned tables, chairs and broken glasses.

"Sorry about the mess." Quint held out his hands for the bundle, but Karl, on instinct, stepped back. Frank narrowed his eyes at the Outsider Lieutenant and smiled back in the same insincere toothy way. He put a hand on his son's shoulder, pulled him back a bit more, and stepped in front of him.

"Oh- I'm –sure- about that. And what made you think bringing a wounded T-Rex cub in here was a good idea in the –first- place?"

Karl nearly dropped the meeping and growling bundle at that, Lorenzo, who had been peaking around the kitchen door jumped back again and some of the other guest who had taken an interest in the goings on, almost involuntarily stepped away- or simply fled.

A T-Rex. Wounded, only an infant and still the stuff of nightmares. The Dinotopians wanted it no-where near themselves.

Quint put up his hands. "Oh- I just came for a drink with my friends here- I mean no trouble. You do not want no trouble here, now do you Frank? Give me back the cub. Now. If you please."

The other outsiders came to stand behind Quint, one nonchalantly cleaning his nails with a knife as long as his forearm, others flexing their fists. Frank crossed his arms in front of him, smiling even more broadly and keeping himself squarely placed between his wily patrons and the cub.

"What do you need it for Quint. The squirt is too small for you appetite."

A collective gasp went through the lookers on, human and saurian alike. Human meat-eaters were also a subject the civilised burgers did not like to dwell upon. Outsiders- cannibals!

Some of the men even came closer again, despite the threat radiating of the Outsiders. A life was at stake. The life of a child, no less. From the corner of his eyes, Quint saw the movement. He also noticed his men becoming a bit nervous.

"Ah- Frank. Tell me, friend, you still making T-Rex omelettes with explosives? Or couldn't you stomach take them? "

The bundle behind Frank wailed pitifully. It sounded like a sob, and it sounded hurt.

Frank Scott thoroughly detested and even –hated- the big lizards that had on more than one occasion nearly had both him –and- his sons for dinner. Quint and his people took the Rexes for desert. There was some kind of justice in that- or at least that was what he had always insisted upon. But the creature in Karl's arms was not a full grown murdering monster. It was an infant. A little one. Something in need of protection and by trice damned fate brought upon –his- path. The desperate cries it gave struck a chord- a feeling he could name nor deny. Besides, no one could hint at him that he had become a coward and get away with it, now could they? So in spite of himself he heard himself say in a low voice: "Is that what you're going to do with it? Making sure you gone get some easy eggs?"

"If you tie it to a tree, the mother is a simple catch."

Again a collective gasp. Quint dropped his smile. "Give me the cub. It is –mine-!"

Frank made himself tall and put his ands in his sides, not moving an inch. "I thought you Outsiders liked challenges, " he mocked, in that same, almost dangerous voice.

Quint made one step closer, coming toe to toe with the older man.

"And what, " he hissed, "is that supposed to mean?"

"I thought you guys liked the challenge, thrill of the hunt and that kind of stuff."

"So?"

Frank shrugged. "Well, your plan just seems a bit, easy."

Quint narrowed his eyes. "Are you calling me a coward, Scott?"

Frank had seen his other guest come forward and the nervousness of the Outsiders. The situation was getting rather grim, and perhaps the T-Rex was worth none of it. If there would be a fight, a serious one at that, the kind-hearted citizens of Waterfall City were no match whatsoever for the roughened Outsiders. Besides, these people would not even realise they had been in a fight until they were beaten to the ground cradling their bloodied noses.

So he kept smiling.

"What I'm saying is that there must be a more, -original- way to get some fun out off your little catch."

Quint, recognising a way out of the upcoming brawl, stepped back, grinning again.

"What did you have in mind. How –much-." And he made the slow movement of rubbing his fingers that even here meant money.

Frank followed the Outsider into the bar, shaking his head and rubbing his chin as if thinking hard.

"Nah- that would be no challenge either." He waved at the poker table.

"You want to play for it? You have never beaten La Sage."

Openly challenging now, Frank mocked back: "But you're not La Sage."

"No-" Quint answered, pulling a chair away from the table and sitting down. "But I'm the one who thought her how to play!"

In the sleight roll of his fathers shoulders, Karl recognised the oh-hell-what-have-I-gotten-myself-in-now! gesture. And he agreed, looking around the room and asking himself whether he would have enough time to pack.

Several hours later, Quint and his men stomped out of the bar, angry, insulted, about two hundred dracs, several trinkets and one wounded T-Rex cub lighter.

News had spread quickly and to Frank's astonishment, both Rosemary and Marian had come to take care of 'the baby', thereby relieving Karl from his little burden. With foresight, they had also brought a sturdy iron cage.

Rosemary was the tall pale high priestess of Dinotopian values, although she would never be pointed out as such nor even think of calling herself by such a title. She was the proud Matriach, midwife to the Saurian orphans in the Hatchery where she held watch over new life. She was the leader on earth farm, distinguished counsel member and in many ways a keeper of the laws. Although in recent times she had found herself not above braking said laws, if a life was at stake. Rosemary's task included the spiritual guidance of young Dinotopians and newcomers. A daunting task, forever questioned, forever in need of proving herself. She could feel where a person's soul belonged, even if their hearts and minds ruled otherwise, and sent them to the places where they mattered most, could challenge themselves most an would, eventually, be contend and happy.

David Scott was proof of her capabilities. It was a rather strange thing to declare a boy with a fear of heights to be of the sky. But he had found himself there between the winds. Karl and Frank proved more difficult. Even if she just –knew- both men to be caretakers and providers above anything else, they seemed ill at ease in the roles she had in mind for them. But Frank, for all his temper, was definitely of the Earth, he always seemed to wish to –make- things. And Karl? If only that boy would settle down for a change- Rosemary's daughter Marian cared deeply for him and their differences would complete each other well.

If only both the boy and the girl could brave the rift between them, that had been steadily growing for two long moths now.

Marian had been considered special from the day she was born and she felt stifled by her destination to become Matriarch after her mother. Not as set in her ways as many Dinotopians around her, she had been both attracted and repulsed by Karl's ideas of the outside world and change. That was until she had learned no born Dinotopian could ever live elsewhere on Earth. Dinotopian bodies, especially their lungs, could not cope with the polluted society the rest of mankind had built itself. If Marian ever left the island of her birth, she would fall ill and die within the year. For a little while, a few hours, she had been allowed the high hopes she could leave, together with Karl and Frank. But David had warned her not to go. And other mysterious occurrences had prevented the Scotts to leave as well. But Marian could not put behind her that Karl would not stay if given half a chance to leave. Not even for her.

He had told her he loved her.

And now it was so very hard to trust again.

Marian took to her father in appearance who was from Spanish decent, she was dark, lovely and very strong willed. Marian was the schoolteacher of Waterfall City's human children. She taught them the Rules of Dinotopia, to read Footprint and to communicate with the Saurians.

During the game Karl had taken place at his father's shoulder like a sentinel, and to his amusement he had seen Quint's certain smile melt into irritation and after that, rage. Not taking the loss of the cub, he had played on. Only to only loose one of his golden wristbands, a necklace made from colourful gems, all of his money and one of his two large knives. But more precious than those was the sworn confession, on paper, of the location the little T-Rex had been caught.

Grinning ear to ear Frank treated the remaining guest who had stayed to support him, to 'one on the house' and while they cheered, he gave the knife to Karl, who could not hide his childlike joy with it but withered under Marian's gaze. So he gave the damn thing to Lorenzo to better shop seaweed with. It left Marion somewhat puzzled, but at least she did not frown at him anymore.

Frank did not stay to toast his victory, all smiles fading from his features as he went into his office to check up on the cub. It lay silently on a bed of straw in the cage, but looked up and meeped pathetically as he entered.

"How is it going in here. Is he bad?"

Rosemary, sitting on her hunches next to the cage sighed. It was a playpen like construction, open at the top.

"One of the leg wounds is deep, but it is cleaned now. He is very tired and hungry. But I have nothing to feed him with."

Frank nodded, thinking hard.

"I'll ask Lorenzo if he has any of the unfertilised chicken eggs left. I don't know if he'll take it- but at least its no greens. And I'll bring some water."

Rosemary smiled and frowned a little. "That might work."

Frank hesitated a moment. "You-er, you know people in the outside world aren't vegetarians, don't you?"

The Matriarch nodded. "Yes Frank, unfortunately."

"Remember that ship, where Karl found the radio?"

She gave another slow nod and rose slowly from the ground in that queenly dignified way that she had, taking care she would not faint after her long crouch.

"Vividly. Why."

Frank dared not to look the lady in the eye. Under the Matriarch's stern gaze he almost felt like he was a five-year-old again, admitting to his mum he had been stealing cookies from the jar.

"Well, when people go out sailing, they take food- and those guys- they had some freeze dried burgers and- well, we kept most of them- for special occasions-"

"I'm sorry Frank, I don't understand what you are saying."

"Meat of a cow- preserved in such a way it's still good. I'll feed it to him."

Distaste flickered over Rosemary's face, but then she controlled herself. Always the practical one, she was at least pleased with the idea in little Tyrannosaur would not starve.

But then she frowned.

"Kept –most- of them, you say?"

Frank flinched and backed out of the room.

"I-er- I'll just get it for him, right? Right."

On his way back from the kitchen and the store-room, hands full and manoeuvring gingerly not to spill the water, Frank was stopped by Karl who was now tending the bar again, for the few last very happy guests.

"I thought Quint said –he- was the one who taught LaSage to play poker!"

Frank grinned. "Yeah- but she probably learned to cheat all on he own!"

Karl laughed. "How is the little guy?"

Frank held up the food. "Hungry!

"Oh no dad! You are –not- gonna give him our last burgers, are you?"

"It's not the last- Besides, I don't think Snapper is interested in any vegetable stew."

Karl opened his mouth to answer that one, closed his mouth again and then asked "Snapper?"

But his father had already turned away.

"That smells disgusting." Marian said hauntingly, turning her face away from the little T-Rex munching on the slightly cooked burgers.

"Yeah well, I thought it would go down better like this."

Rosemary sat on her knees again near the cage but at a respectable distance, studying the creature.

"I've never actually seen one eat before."

"I have." Marian said wryly.

Frank was leaning keeling next to the cage, tiredly resting his arms on the side, chin on his hands.

"He just looks like some weird kind of cat."

The T-Rex looked up at the sound of his voice and he smiled, unaware of the worried looks the two women exchanged.

"You might want to take some care, Frank," Rosemary advised. "One of his younger cousins nearly cost some of my people their fingers. He could jump at your face."

"Nah, I don't think so. You know what, I bet you they even purr, don't you, you little Snapper."

Unthinkingly Frank reached out and patted the creature on the head. It swiftly looked up from it's meal, hopped a little closer, savouring the wounded leg and tilted it's head.

Marian stepped closer, ready to pull her friend away. "Frank don't!" she warned. But the man shrugged, even leaned a bit closer and scratched the chin of the little one, his fingers right next to the razor sharp teeth that even at its tender age could rip his throat out.

The little T-Rex bowed his head to the side, trustingly exposing it's own throat and cooed a soft sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl. Frank smiled down at it.

"Not really a purr, you know. But I'll buy."

"Frank-" Rosemary then did pull his hand away. The little creature in the pen changed it's tone to a full threatening growl and tried to jump at her on one leg, failing to bite her only because it was still to weak. A bit startled the two humans rose to their feet.

"Feisty little thing, now aren't you."

"Frank!" Rosemary urged.

Frank turned, his eyes a bit glazed over and blinking, as if just waking.

"What- Is there a problem here?"

"Did you just name him?"

He answered a bit defensive. "So- I don't like to call him 'he you!'. So what?"

"But you hate the Tyrannosaurs." Marian urged him. Frank turned back to the little creature, that stared up at him almost like a trusting pup.

"Didn't you even wanted to destroy them all?"

Frank stepped back from the pen. "What is going on here?"

Rosemary took him by the arm and sat him down on the battered couth next to the pen.

"How do you feel about the Tyrannosaurs, Frank."

He shook his head. "I hate them. With all my guts. I thought they killed my boy. Every bloody time I go somewhere they turn up as if we're having a god dammed lunch meeting!"

He stood and turned away, pacing the small space of the room.

"And I keep asking myself- what is so important in keeping those overgrown vermin around? Why don't you destroy them. They are a menace, nothing more!"

Rosemary stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"So why is this one different, Frank."

Frank turned around, almost pleading. "He's not. But he's just a small one."

"He'll grow."

The little T-Rex looked up at Frank and started to make an almost bleating sound, as if pleading.

"He doesn't think I'm his mother, does he?"

"No." Marian answered. "He knows all too well whom his mother really is. But I do think he likes you."

"Besides," Rosemary started, "You did name him-"

"So you said. What's so important about that?"

"Only a Life Mate names their Saurian partner Frank. And I'm afraid you've found yours."

Frank stumbled back, until he collided with the couch and flopped down, staring up at the women.

"O god-" he muttered, gazing at the little T-Rex who happily stared back at him, tail swishing.

"I need a drink."


	2. Snapper, Act 1: Scene 2

Based on the books by James Gurney and on the Mini series and TV-series Copyright Halmark Entertainment and Bridge Entertainment Group BV.

Every human has their very own Saurian Life Partner. Except for Frank Scott. But when he finally finds one, nobody, including he himself, is very pleased about it.

Dinotopia: the second season

By Owl-Who-Ate-Too-Many-Mice

Part one

Snapper: Act 1, Scene 2

The hot air above the canyons shimmered in the midday sun. The updraft and howls of the wind were strong, carried the sands that shaped the sharp ridges far out, perhaps even as far as the ocean. David really should not be out right now, braving the baking cliffs and the glittering dust that bled from the red mountains.

But he could not help but be outside.

The cries of the majestic Pterosaurs thrilled his heart, even if he could not see them clearly through the shimmer of the hot air. The red rocks filled his vision, sharply crested against the azure sky where not a cloud was to be seen. It could thunder in the Rainy Basin right now- but here the air was dry and clear and bright.

Here, between the rocks, the flying Saurians and his adopted family of the Skybax core, here was his home, now.

Home.

Four letters, one simple word.

So many meanings.

That one place where you knock at the door in the middle of the night, and they -can't- turn you away.

The green green grass of home, and a home cooked meal. Home on the range. Yellow ribbons round the ol' ol' tree.

Do you still love me?

David knew there were not enough platitudes to describe the true feeling of 'home', except perhaps for that one that said 'home is where the heart is'. Whatever it was the heart wanted out of life.

Two months ago, he followed his father and brother into the darkened streets of Waterfall City because they needed to go where their hearts still were. Out there, at the other side of the world. In the midst of overcrowded, polluted cities were people had no time for each other, did not look each other in the eye when they met in the streets and 'breath deep' would bring on a bout of bronchitis.

Where his father could be 'the main man' again, the big cahoona. The man with the money, the status and the lovely lady half his age at his side, who would become the next ex-misses Scott. It really was a miracle David had only –one- half-brother.

One half-brother who wanted to go back to his own life of empty headed parties and empty headed friends who thought they were something because at least one of their parents had made it, one way or the other. Meaning lay in whomever you knew- and David realised how cynical he had become about all that.

He had tried to live that life, if only a little. Because it was expected of him. But he had been a shy bookworm, not very popular with guys and even less with girls. Gawky, terrified and lost.

Deep down yearning for something –real-. A feeling he could touch, a warmth he could see when he looked in the eyes of another. David really did not care whom those eyes would belong to.

They would not be his mother's eyes. He loved her. She was elegant, beautiful, independent and stubborn. When she found out his father Frank had been sleeping around during their marriage, just after she had gotten pregnant by him, she had left him. David had been told his mother had been the only woman who ever had. His mothers brother had also told him she was probably the only woman who had ever decked Francis Karl Scott. Broken his nose even.

The divorce had been ugly, he had been told.

Deep down, David's mother had never forgiven her only son the child's existence, for he had been guilty of making her undesirable to her husband during her pregnancy. How shallow can a couple get?

David loved her. Like any little boy would. Like any growing boy would, in need of affection. But his nanny had meant more to the shy child in that department. And so the distant father had become a hero, who seldom came round. But –if- he did, he came like Santa. A Santa who unfortunately came with baseball gear and not the longed for telescope. A Santa who would not talk with him, but told him all about another little boy, living at the other side of the country. A perfect blond little boy who could ride a horse before he could talk, who won cups and prises and climbed trees and had been so brave when he fell out of one and broke his arm.

David had hated that other little boy.

So what if he could not ride horseback and became nauseous in a tree climbing higher than the lowest branch! He won the science fair! He became chess champion! And his history paper had even been published- he had only been fourteen at the time.

Frank had brought the boys together for the first time when they were eight years old. A summer holiday at dad's ranch. Karl had been open and friendly at first. But he had quickly lost interest in the other boy, when he noticed his darkling brother would play with him, but not play rough. Karl did not play chess, did not like to be inside behind books all day and was quickly bored with his nerdy know-it-al sibling.

Father had been disappointed. It had been the same old, same old ever since.

Until the day they landed here, and David had found Freefall. Had stared in the eyes of Freefall. Had found not a brother of his blood, but a brother of his soul in a creature that had no words but talked to his mind. A creature that never looked at him with pithy, but always with affection.

And through the flight of Freefall, through the heroics made possible by the crash of his father's little plane, David soured.

When Rosemary, Matriarch of Earth Farm and spiritual leader of the Dinotopians in general had told him he was 'of the air', David had refused to believe her, at first. What, him? Sent away to Canyon City to be part of the elite troupe of the Skybax Core, the pilots and heroes of Dinotopia? Forget it- impossible! But then he had seen the possibility of outshining his brother, of, at least posthumously doing something his father might have approved of, since Frank had been thought to be deceased at the time. And he went for it. Heart and body and mind. Until he communed and connected with Freefall. Then his very soul came into play.

Outshining his brother, making his father proud, those had been good reasons to be a 'flyboy', at first. As good as any. But all that did not matter anymore. The night he had followed his father and brother into the dark city, the night he would say goodbye to them and most likely never see them again, he for the first time in his life, truly loved those two people simply for who they were. Could feel their affection for him, how sorry they were he stayed behind. The old bonds broke that night. David fried himself of his old self and for the rest of his life would only make choices –for- himself, uncurbed by the past.

His attitude had not changed with the change in the evening's planned events, and the tremendous disappointment his father and brother were forced to suffer and seemed to suffer under ever since.

A few hundred years ago a John Gould had been washed up at Sapphire Bay. The man had claimed to be a wizard and had, among other things, proved his claim by showing the Dinotopians a magical portal to the outside world. Terrified of the damned man and the damned portal, the Dinotopians had driven him to flee using his own invention. But the portal had remained.

David had learned of the portal only under the direst of circumstances. Karl was dying and needed a cure for the tropical disease he suffered from. Rosemary had at the very last moment told him about the magical gateway and in doing so had helped David save his brother's life. But now the secret was out and soon after the senate had seen itself forced to allow Frank and Karl to leave the island paradise.

But the portal had been stolen.

Thwarted, disillusioned and embittered, Frank and Karl had to stay and accept that until the portal was found again, they were going no-where.

David dared not accuse anyone of stealing the portal. But it could only be a handful of people. Either the Senators of Dinotopia, for at least one or more among them had been dead against the Scotts leaving in fear of revealing the secret of the existence of the island, or Torres LeSage, the leader of the Outsiders who had overheard Rosemary telling David about the portal and had jumped in on his journey to the outside world.

Torres had denied taking the portal, claiming she could not use it anyway. She was right about that one, the pure lungs of the Dinotopians could not handle the polluted air of the Outside World and any islander who went out for a prolonged stay would pay for this with their lives. Waldo and Rosemary could not openly accuse their colleagues in the Senate and had to manoeuvre with extreme delicacy to try and find out who had 'done it'. And so far, they had been unsuccessful.

But David's bet was still on Torres. She had wrapped his father, and consequently his brother, around her little finger with her dangerous charm and they believed her. They also believed her death threat to Karl made in her despair to come with David to the Outside World, should not be taken too seriously- But David had seen her eyes when she made it and indeed, -meant- it!

David closed his eyes against the sun- some-one was calling his name. Krista, it had to be her. She was a very brave young woman whom he was growing very fond of, part of his team and one of the very best Skybax Riders around. Strange though- While he was gradually growing closer to this girl, his brother had fallen out with the one both young men had fallen instantly in love with the moment they had seen her. Marian SeVille, the Mayors daughter, had been more than a friend to them when they arrived. She had been guide into this new world, confident to them both and almost lover of Karl. But apparently she was now royally fed up with his I-love-you-but-I'll-gladly-leave-you-behind attitude. David still loved her- but his feelings had changed towards her. She had always chosen Karl over him, even when she acknowledged that he was the more sensitive soul of the two, the more Dinotopian. But perhaps that had been the trouble with Marian all along- she had never wanted another Dinotopian boy. She had wanted a promise of –something- else. And Karl had –almost- given her that. Now, in David's heart, Marian was more like a sister. And he believed Marian thought of him like a brother as well. They were good friends- but if Karl would do some growing up already, David had not lost hope he and Marian would become true family through his brother's bond with her. The two were so furious with each other, that it gave him high hopes for their future reconciliation.

But Marian had some other big troubles at the moment. Matters that troubled David greatly too. Marian's mother Rosemary had fallen ill, these past two months. Her own herbal medicines held no cure and the disappeared portal was of no use as long as it was gone. The queenly Matriarch had become delicate and grew paler day by day- Waldo was growing quietly desperate.

Five years the mayor of Waterfall City and the matriarch of Earth Farm had not spoken to each other. Too lost in their respective duties to bridge the gap that had grown between them while Waldo had turned to politics and meetings, ritual and tradition and Rosemary's sole attention had been to growing things and young life.

It had taken the near destruction of their world to make them see how foolish they had behaved towards each other and how much each of them needed the others support and council. Samantha, Marian's younger sister, sometimes complained that her parents behaved like newlyweds and that this was becoming 'gross'.

And now, not six month after those two had found each other again, they might be faced with the most permanent separation of all.

"David!" Krista's voice called out to him. He turned with a smile and went to her.

"What is it Krista?"

"Messenger bird from Karl has arrived."

David could not hide his surprise and followed the girl inside, where the poor bird from Waterfall City was probably being watered and fed after his long flight. Karl usually only called when it was serious-

The homes of the Riders were no more than simple rooms carved out of the cliff wall. David had his own place now, but it was almost as sparsely furnitured as when he was still a cadet.

The colourful Dimorpedon, a parrot like predecessor of some birds David could mention, shook his large rounded yellow beak and his blue tail feathers, apparently somewhat chagrined with the long distance he had been forced to travel. When David entered the room, it turned hastily, spraying water droplets all over his desk.

"David Scott, messengerbird 267 for David Scott! Are you David Scott?"

David exchanged a look with Krista and both smiled. David pointed at the mess on his desk.

"Thanks for taking care of him."

Krista chuckled. "Pleasure." She left, leaving David to his message in private. And for a quiet moment, took her turn in staring out over the deep Canyons.

Quiet until a booming "What!" in David's voice was heard, the messengerbid fled from the small opening that serviced as window like a bat out of hell, indignantly screeching, and David himself rushed towards the perch where he could call his friend Freefall from, cap in hand and hastily buttoning his tunic.

Quickly and worriedly Krista followed in his wake, almost stumbling from haste.

"David, wait up! What's wrong!"

"It's my dad!"

He climbed the steps of the perch and hooked his right arm, held up to the sky as if inviting a falcon to land. A light spot on the heavens and came tumbling down, unheeding of the ground. David jumped back, grabbed a spare saddle from the rack, not bothering with looking for his own in his haste, and impatiently waited for Freefall to land and turn so he could throw the saddle on his back and fly.

"What happened!" Krista pleaded. "What has he done now! Has he been hurt?"

The question sobered David somewhat and he turned.

"Not yet-" he almost hissed. "He has found himself a saurian life-partner!"

Krista's face cleared and she smiled broadly.

"But that is wonderful news! You're going for the bonding ceremony?"

"I'm probably going to save his butt!"

Krista was completely baffled.

"But aren't you in the least happy for him? I would thought that his bonding-"

Freefall landed, David jumped at the Flybax and threw the saddle over his head, turned and gave his human friend one parting shot before flying off.

"To a T-Rex!"

Leaving her and other surprised pilots who had come running to ask where the fire was, staring up at the dot he swiftly was becoming.


End file.
